Sunday, November 2, 2008

I am not either whipped....

But I do know when I am required to obey.

I'll wrassle anyone who casts aspersions on my masculinity -- and may I remind you all that there was a time when my eldest-sibling ninja skills were the source of abject terror -- despite the wearing of yellow socks, the complete subjugation of my affections to little white fluffy dogs, and a near total surrender of control over my daily activities to my wife.

I am required to obey. But I am not whipped. I am not. Not, I say.

Both my daughter-in-law and my wife say "Jump!"

I am in the process of saying, "How high, my dears?"

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Kay and I did our usual avoidance of Halloween activities on Friday p.m. We ate at Logan's Roadhouse -- I had steak and bake, while Kay sat and tried to enjoy her salmon while her tooth ached. (The fourth, yes, that's the right count, the fourth temporary crown had come off.)

I have decided that it's no fun to enjoy your steak when your wife's tooth aches. I think I may have a boundary problem, or maybe it's just that we really are one flesh.

And then we went to see "Body of Lies."

Russell Crowe must have put on forty or fifty pounds for the part; he looked like me, only with more hair. He was something like an ugly American, a tainted mentor. Leonardo diCaprio plays an Arabic-speaking operative working like Bond to court the beautiful woman while avoiding being the star of an internet youtube slasher-flick hosted by terrorists.

It was diverting enough, escapist enough to feel like you're being sortof educated while also caught up in action-thriller arousal.

But.

I'm remembering the last movie we went to see -- "Mamma Mia."Kay and I were both singing the words to all the songs, grinning and giggling and groaning all through the thing. Much more involving. TOtally unrealistic, absolutely non-educational, but engrossing.

And then there's that movie I saw on cable, a couple nights ago. Didn't catch the name, but it used the same gimmick as MM; a story built around songs from a single group - the Beatles.The musical numbers weren't staged like Broadway so much as MM. But the musical arrangements and the vocalists were wonderful, marvelous, so very, very nice. And the back-story - which was really the fore-story - was almost the plot of Hair.

So, essentially, the history of our generation. You know, 60's and 70's. The decades we didn't actually live like everyone else did.

But our cultural background. It feels like patriotism, watching the story of the boomers growing into whatever passed for early adulthood.

I get nostalgic for history we didn't experience all that directly.

And the contrast with having been with all you family, recounting all the history and reliving the culture we DID experience directly. Singing harmony, and remembering the stories we lived.

In this movie, the scene they sang "Let It Be" to was two funerals, one of a black kid and one of a brother killed in Vietnam.